ES North boys edge Mounties in swimming

BUSHKILL — The East Stroudsburg North boys swim team outscored Stroudsburg 20-10 in the last two events to rally for an 89-81 Mountain Valley Conference swimming victory over the Mounties on Thursday.

BUSHKILL — The East Stroudsburg North boys swim team outscored Stroudsburg 20-10 in the last two events to rally for an 89-81 Mountain Valley Conference swimming victory over the Mounties on Thursday.

The Timberwolves were behind, 71-69, entering the 100-yard breaststroke, but scored 10 points in the event to Stroudsburg's six to take the lead at 79-77. Michael Rosser won the event with a time of 1:10.81 to score six points and Eric Slipe took third for three more points.

In the meet's final event, the 400 free relay, East Stroudsburg North took first and third place for 10 points, with the Mounties getting second for four points. The winning relay team was Samuel Velez, Anthony Montante, who won two individual races in the meet, Sebastian Pardedes and Tristan Williams.

Stroudsburg's girls rolled to a 101-69 win as Emily Joyce and Alexandra burns each won two events and Marissa Mesko, Jacquelin Williams and Kimmie Konz added individual wins.

EAST STROUDSBURG — East Stroudsburg University rode a historic defensive effort in the first half to a 68-52 win over Millersville, tying a school record with its fifth straight PSAC win by double figures, on Wednesday night at Koehler Fieldhouse.

The Warriors (14-2, 11-1) continued their best-ever PSAC start and extended their winning streak to eight games and 12 of their last 13 by holding Millersville to 13 points in the first half — the fewest in their 297 games under 11th-year head coach Jeff Wilson. ESU was first in "others receiving votes" in this week's NABC Top 25 poll.

Sophomore guard Whis Grant scored 17 points, senior forward Terrance King and sophomore guard Matt Tobin scored 14 each and senior forward Duane Johnson had five points and a career-high 14 rebounds for ESU, which holds a two-game lead on West Chester for the top spot in the PSAC East.

Junior forward Zechariah Runkle had seven points, six rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks in his third straight start and senior forward Gerald Bridges had six points and four rebounds after missing the last two games due to injury. Johnson also added two steals and two blocks, Tobin had five assists and King pulled down five rebounds to become the eighth player in school history with 600 in his career.

Grant, who went for 101 points in his previous four games, was one of three Warriors to play 36 minutes in the backcourt along with Tobin and Johnson.

Jaymes Miller scored 15 points, Larry Grant had 11 off the bench and Elijah Obade, the nation's leading rebounder, had eight points, seven rebounds and two blocks to lead Millersville (12-6, 8-4), which entered tied for second in the PSAC East with West Chester.

ESU, playing at home for the first time since Jan. 5, won four straight road games in the interim, all by 10+ points. The Warriors matched their record for consecutive double-figure PSAC wins that was set in 1942-43 and tied in 1970-71.

The Warriors' eight-game winning streak against PSAC foes is also their second-longest in the last 70 years. They won nine straight PSAC games in 2007-08 — the three streaks of 10+ games all came in the early years of the program from 1926 through 1943, including a record 15 straight from 1940-41 through 1941-42.

ESU jumped on Millersville early, opening leads of 9-0 and 25-6, and led 37-13 at halftime. Runkle opened the game with a three, and Grant, Bridges and Tobin all connected on three's in the first seven minutes as the Warriors ran out to a 20-6 advantage.

They held the Marauders scoreless for a stretch of almost seven minutes in the middle of the half until Anthony Coleman (eight points) broke an 11-0 run with a bucket with just under eight minutes left.

A putback by King gave the Warriors the final points of the first half and a 37-13 lead. Millersville was 5-for-21 with 16 turnovers — leading to a 15-0 ESU advantage in points off turnovers — in the first 20 minutes.

ESU led by 26 (41-15) early in the second half before Millersville stormed back with a 20-4 run to make it 45-35 with more than 12 minutes left. Tobin answered with a three-pointer, the first of two key shots in the second half, as the Warriors maintained a lead of at least eight points down the stretch.

Grant cut it to eight (57-49) with 4:00 to play, but Tobin hit another three the next time down and held the Marauders to just three points the rest of the way. Tobin, King and Grant combined for 20 of the Warriors' final 23 points in the last 13 minutes.

The Warriors forced a total of 25 turnovers after entering as the PSAC leader with 19.7 per game, and Millersville shot 18-for-48 from the field, including 2-for-11 from three-point range.

They came into the game ranked 12th in Division II in turnover margin at +5.3 and posted a +9 figure on Wednesday night.

ESU hosts Shippensburg (4-12, 2-10) on Saturday. Ship fell to West Chester, 74-57, after beating Bloomsburg and Mansfield last week.

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